The four-volume Encyclopedia of Global Studies covers the field of global studies and subjects related to it, such as globalization, transnational activity and themes of global society. This encyclopedia is written for the educated general reader as well as students and professionals working in the field of global studies. It is the first encyclopedia of its kind, and aims to become the internationally-recognized reference work for academics, policymakers, and practitioners interested in the various dimensions of globalization. It provides succinct summaries of concepts and theories, definitions of terms, biographical entries, and organizational profiles; offers a guide to sources of information; and establishes an overview of Global Studies in different parts of the world and across cultures and historical periods.  The wide range of subjects covered include the following:
            - intellectual approaches, such as global sociology, political economy, world systems theory, peace and conflict studies, and communications;
            - global and transnational topics, such as cross-border conflicts and terrorism, worldwide health crises and climate disruption, the planetary immigration patterns and new cultural diasporas, and the seemingly boundless global market, rapid communications, and transnational cyberspaces devised by technology and new media.

The four-volume Encyclopedia of Global Studies covers the field of global studies and subjects related to it, such as globalization, transnational activity and themes of global society. This encyclopedia is written for the educated general reader as well as students and professionals working in the field of global studies. It is the first encyclopedia of its kind, and aims to become the internationally-recognized reference work for academics, policymakers, and practitioners interested in the various dimensions of globalization. It provides succinct summaries of concepts and theories, definitions of terms, biographical entries, and organizational profiles; offers a guide to sources of information; and establishes an overview of Global Studies in different parts of the world and across cultures and historical periods.  The wide range of subjects covered include the following:
            - intellectual approaches, such as global sociology, political economy, world systems theory, peace and conflict studies, and communications;
            - global and transnational topics, such as cross-border conflicts and terrorism, worldwide health crises and climate disruption, the planetary immigration patterns and new cultural diasporas, and the seemingly boundless global market, rapid communications, and transnational cyberspaces devised by technology and new media.

The four-volume Encyclopedia of Global Studies covers the field of global studies and subjects related to it, such as globalization, transnational activity and themes of global society. This encyclopedia is written for the educated general reader as well as students and professionals working in the field of global studies. It is the first encyclopedia of its kind, and aims to become the internationally-recognized reference work for academics, policymakers, and practitioners interested in the various dimensions of globalization. It provides succinct summaries of concepts and theories, definitions of terms, biographical entries, and organizational profiles; offers a guide to sources of information; and establishes an overview of Global Studies in different parts of the world and across cultures and historical periods.  The wide range of subjects covered include the following:
            - intellectual approaches, such as global sociology, political economy, world systems theory, peace and conflict studies, and communications;
            - global and transnational topics, such as cross-border conflicts and terrorism, worldwide health crises and climate disruption, the planetary immigration patterns and new cultural diasporas, and the seemingly boundless global market, rapid communications, and transnational cyberspaces devised by technology and new media.

This article sketches the outlines of a contemporary inter- and transdisciplinary methodology to understand the current global change. It gives a short overview over the seven-fold approach of the author called “System Action Theory”, which tries to integrate the typological discourses and systemic order patterns of politics, economics, culture, religion, technology and demography. According to the author, the “global systemic shift” is nevertheless not reducable to the sum of these six dimensions, but is “more than the sum of its parts” and thus a seventh dimension which has to be understood through its inbuilt dialectics, conflicts and (productive) contradictions. Because most relevant problems in the globalized world get multidimensional, plurifaceted and ambiguous, no single discipline will be able to achieve a sound, complex-adequate analysis anymore. Instead, an inter- and transdisciplinary stance will always be more necessary.

Transitions in technology are shaping, defining and establishing the future of the globalized social sphere with increasing pace and impact. As seen from a systemic viewpoint, the overall process seems to consist of a two-fold movement, in which an outer process of transition is joined by an inner transformational drive. While new social media like Facebook, Twitter, webcams, smartphones and iPads change the outer dimension of how we perceive, interpret and handle our social lives, thus transforming our habits of cultural consumption, contemporary brain and consciousness research are changing the inner dimension of the contemporary social by dramatically re-shaping the self-perception and interpretation of the individual through the findings, cultural distribution and practical applications of neuroscience and neurotechnology, thus questioning the conceptual cornerstones of sociality as conceived by Western modernity. This two-fold argument examines both processes from the inside out and the outside in. As such, the primary task as at now may not be trying to “explain” the meaning(s) of the new developments, but rather to identify an array of crucial questions at the inter- and trans-disciplinary crossroads between the different societal fields, culturo-political trends and scientific disciplines.

An estimated 1.6 billion people worldwide have no access to electricity. An untold number of others live with electricity that is erratic and of poor quality. How can electric power be brought into their lives when the centralized utility models that have evolved in developed nations are not an economically viable option? Small-scale Distributed Generation (DG), ranging from individual solar home systems to village level grids run off diesel generators, could provide the answer, and this book compares around 20 DG enterprises and projects in Brazil, Cambodia and China, each of which is considered to be a "business model" for distributed rural electrification.

While large, centralized power projects often rely on big subsidies, this study shows that privately run and localized solutions can be both self-sustaining and replicable.  The book's three sections provide a general introduction to the issue of electrification and rural development, set out the details of the case studies and compare the models involved, and discuss the important thematic issues of equity, access to capital and cost-recovery. Zerriffi shows that in each case, it is not simply a matter of matching a particular technology to a particular need. Numerous institutional factors come into play, including the regulatory regime, access to financial services, and government/utility support or opposition to the DG alternative.